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Jerry Earl Nelson
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Jerry Earl Nelson

American telescope designer and astronomer
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Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Born:
January 15, 1944, Glendale, California, U.S.
Died:
June 10, 2017, Santa Cruz, California (aged 73)
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Jerry Earl Nelson (born January 15, 1944, Glendale, California, U.S.—died June 10, 2017, Santa Cruz, California) was an American telescope designer and astronomer who originated the assembly of large telescope mirrors out of smaller segments. Nelson received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1965 and a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. He subsequently joined the physics division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 1977 Nelson was a member of a University of California committee that designed a 10-metre (400-inch) telescope that would supplant the 5-metre (200-inch) Hale ...(100 of 207 words)

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